assign staff to manufacturing or research

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GTA 5 Bunker Research And Manufacturing Guide To Become The Best Gunrunning Criminal In San Andreas

Loo - Nov 02, 2020 | Mobile Games

If you are tired of doing small businesses in the city then it's time to get into GTA 5 Bunker research and manufacturing.

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The GTA Online Gunrunning update was added to GTA in 2017, allowing players to access many new military features and business to get big money. The update brings huge bunkers into the GTA world for players to buy and make it the center of their new criminal enterprise.

But to invest in this kind of business, you will need a lot of money. And you still might screw up and ended up losing your money if you don't do it right. The Bunker is indeed a really hard operation that it divided fans with how difficult it is to make things right.

Here is our completed GTA 5 bunker research , manufacturing guide so you can understand how it works and make a load of money from your Bunker.

Table of Contents

Buy a bunker, gta 5 bunker research guide, gta 5 bunker manufacturing guide, gta 5 bunker supplies.

First, to get into this business, you need to buy yourself a Bunker first. But not anybody with money can buy the Bonker. You have to be either a VIP, CEO, or Biker Club President in order to buy a Bunker.

The Bunker will be your base for all your Gunrunning missions and activities. Your Bunker has an HQ section, a weapon workshop, a garage bay for Mobile Operations Center (MOC), and areas for manufacturing and researching.

You can also add a shooting range, a gun locker, and choose the style for your own Bunker. The three best options for Bunker are Chumash, Route 68, Canyon.

Raton Canyon

Raton Canyon is one of the cheapest Bunker in GTA ($1.45M) out of the 11 options. Still, it is one of the best options because it is located in a location surrounded by mountains so you will safe when taking off with your aerial vehicles.

It is quite close to resupply missions and far away from potential dangers.

While Chumash ($1.65M) is more expensive than Raton Canyon, have less protection, and is a more popular choice, it is close to the city. It would be very convenient for people who do many other businesses and activities in the city.

Not many players like the Route 68 Bunker but it does have its charm. It is a place for players who want some actions because the Sandy Shores area has several Bunkers close to each other. You will likely get attacked by other players when you get out of your Bunker.

In the Bunker, you can assign staff to do research on new projects such as armor and weapons. There is a total of 51 projects and you can only do 1 project at a time. The GTA  5 Bunker research time for 1 project is from 4 hours to 6 hours.  That is a total of about 200 hours to unlock all of them. Also, you can't control which project to research because it will be randomized.

The research bar has 60 points and the points will increase by 1 every 5 minutes. That makes 8.5 hours for the bar to be filled to 100 points.

If your Bunker is fully upgraded, it will only need 3.5 minutes to generate 1 point so it only takes 3.5 house to fill the entire bar.

You can also finish your research immediately by using Fast Tracking and pay a certain amount of money. In order to research a technology without research points, you need to spend $225,000.

Apart from researching, you can also manufacture weapons, using your supplies, to sell later. This procedure is also affected by how well-developed is your bunker.

A Supply bar has 100 units. You can buy 20 supply units at a price of $15,000. You can pay $75,000 to completely fill the bar.

You can also get supply units by stealing supply units in missions and get a chance to receive 20 supply units instead of 20.

These missions are often simple such as getting to a place in a certain amount of time, losing the police,... There some hard missions such as assault Humane Lab or steal a tank.

An upgraded Bunker will use supply more efficiently so you don't have to refill it constantly and do other stuff.

Also check out:  GTA 5 Nightclub Warehouse Management Guide - GTA Online Guide

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The Research page on Disruption Logistics .

Research is a Bunker procedure appearing in Grand Theft Auto Online as part of the Gunrunning update. It allows staff to be assigned to research projects, unlocking exclusive customization options and liveries for weapons and vehicles.

• 1 Description
• 2.1 Possible locations
• 2.2 Gallery
• 3.1.1 Weapon Mods
• 4 Navigation

Description [ ]

When supplies are gained, through Disruption Logistics , the player has the option to assign staff to managing stock, research, or both - if the player chooses the assign staff to research, they will begin to research into new projects, such as armor and weaponry, which can be unlocked. There are 51 projects to be researched, and the current research project is selected at random from the list. Only one research project can be done at a time. These research modifications can be applied to Weaponized Vehicles , or added to the MKII weapon conversions.

Assigning staff to both stock and research increases the research project time while assigning staff solely to research will halve the time research is completed in. The player will be notified when their current research project is complete, and they can check what has been unlocked - there is no specific order, research unlocks will be picked at random.

Each project will take hours and will consume supplies, and if there is more than 0% progress in researching the current project, its contents will be revealed. Alternatively, players can choose a Fast-track option to complete it immediately, though its cost depends on the research progress:

Request Bunker Research [ ]

With The Criminal Enterprises update, players are now able to call Agent 14 to request a Bunker Research mission, which rewards the player with some cash and a boost to Research progress upon completion.

Agent 14 will inform the player of an ongoing shootout between the police and an individual equipped with Ballistic Equipment and a Minigun . The player must travel to the location of the shootout and take out the target, following which the research data must be retrieved from the target's body and taken back to the Bunker.

Upon approaching the location, the player will receive a 3-star wanted level. The wanted level must be lost before the research data can be delivered to the Bunker.

Occasionally, the target will instead be a Cliffford Juggernaut (identified by Agent 14 as an Avon Robot), but the mission is unchanged otherwise.

Possible locations [ ]

Upon completion of the mission, there is a 20-minute cooldown before another can be started.

The Bunker Research mission can be started even if the player has completed all available Research items. The player does not need to be registered as a CEO or MC President to start the mission.

Gallery [ ]

Research [ ]

Vehicle mods [ ], weapon mods [ ], navigation [ ].

• 1 Vehicles in GTA V
• 2 Vehicles in GTA Online
• 3 100% Completion in GTA V

How to Give Assignments to Team Members

Last updated on: March 21, 2024

The project has been divided into milestones, goals and objectives broken into tasks, and now it’s time to assign them. But as you open the project management platform, you’re faced with the unflattering process of wording the tasks, and choosing whom to assign them to.

Well, in this article, we offer advice on how to make that jumbled first moment a little clearer. There are actionable tips, learning the difference between allocating and delegating tasks, and suggested criteria on how to choose the best person for the job.

For a more precise overview, here’s a table of contents:

Table of Contents

How do you assign employees tasks?

We normally think that assigning tasks is a time-consuming process that focuses on clearing out task lists to keep the project going. However, task assignment should actually be a more employee-oriented process that requires additional dedication and effort, which yields incredible results. But what do we mean by that?

Properly assigned tasks push your employees, projects, and the overall company forward. Here’s how.

• They strengthen accountability and trust between managers and employees;
• They help teach new skills and perfect old ones;
• They allow employees to get familiar with other teams and avenues of work;
• It becomes easier to make project estimates;
• Makes for great bases for performance reviews, etc.

The list could go on, but we’ll stop there for now.

Of course, such long-term benefits don’t come without some proverbial blood and sweat in the planning stage. Let’s take a look at the general ideas on assigning employee tasks, and specific steps you can take.

Motivation comes from knowing the bigger picture

When we talk about the bigger picture in project management, we talk about each team member’s task affecting their peer’s down the line. Since all tasks are usually small pieces of the puzzle, it helps to remind employees how their work contributes. For example:

• A high-quality draft can make a great foundation for the final version, and it can be completed more quickly.
• A well-prepared presentation can shave time off unnecessary questions and additional email inquiries.

It comes as no surprise that people work better and are more productive, when they know that their work has an impact on the company level.

And so, when you assign tasks, try to emphasize how they fit in the bigger picture. Simply saying: “ You doing X will help with Y and Z ” and how it reflects on the project as a whole will let an employee know that the task they were assigned is important.

Get your employees excited to commit

Telling people about the bigger picture and showing them what’s possible can only get them so far. It’s enough to ignite the initial spark, but for them to fully commit to the task, you need to define what that task entails.

They should be able to picture how to go about the work, what skills to use, and how to reach the desired result. The clearer the instructions, the more motivated they will be to work.

Simply put, give directions on how the task should be done, and make sure they understand. You can’t read each other’s minds, so it’s important everyone is on the same page.

Ask for task transparency

One of the best practices a company can employ is transparency among coworkers.

This is achieved by having everyone input their tasks for the day in a timesheet. The purpose of timesheets is to get an accurate idea of what everyone is working on at any given time.

When people know who works on what tasks, it’s easier for them to know if a person is available or busy, how far along they are with a task, etc.

So, when you give assignments to employees, label them with deadlines. Alternatively, you can ask for employees’ assessments on how long the work would take them, and use those timeframes.

Source: Clockify team timesheet

Timesheets are a great way to keep an eye on tasks and the people doing them. You get to:

• see who struggles with what (helps assess people’s skill sets);
• who burns through their workload and is available for additional tasks;
• whether your time estimates need correction;
• identify any wasted time.

💡 If your employees are insecure about keeping public records of their tasks, here are a few resources that can help:

• How to create order in your daily work tasks
• How to be more efficient with your tasks

Keep a crystal clear timeframe

While we’re discussing timesheets and deadline transparency, it’s important to mention that the times you set for task completions need to be clear-cut.

As we’ve mentioned, the safest way to assign deadlines is to consult the employees. They are better at assessing how long it will take them due to the tasks’ difficulty, overall deadlines, the standards that need to be met, and the skill required to complete it.

When they get a say in how long they should be doing an assignment, people tend to feel more accountable for the whole process. They will do their best to finish in time, since they actively participated in setting the deadline.

Set very clear expectations

Assigning a task should always include your (the supervisor’s) expectations pointed out. For example:

• Does a logo pitch need as many drafts as possible, or just a few finished pieces?

If you ask a designer to make some drafts for a logo pitch, you must specify the kind of quality you’re looking for. Explain whether you are looking for some sketches and drafts for a brainstorming meeting, or if you want clean, presentable pieces to show.

Additionally:

• How many pieces should the designer do?
• Is there a specific color palette they need to follow?
• How important is the task? Is this the day they finally decide on a logo, or is it still in the brainstorming stage? (decides on the quality of the work itself)

Assigning the task using the above questions, you help the designer understand how much effort precisely they need to invest. They become more motivated with clear instructions, as they know what is expected of them. There’s no fear of having their work criticized for something that wasn’t communicated in the beginning. And on your end, it prevents breached deadlines or subpar results.

Avoid creating dependency by being less involved

It’s not unusual for employees to ask their supervisors for their opinion on a certain task, or their performance.

The problem arises when a supervisor makes themselves too involved with the process. When they feel like the project might fall apart if they don’t have their eyes on every moving part all of the time. And when you have, say, 20 people waiting for that person’s approval, advice, or consultation, the workflow runs into a gridlock.

And wait time is wasted time.

Plus, people lose motivation, patience, and grow frustrated, as they could be doing other things.

So, learn not to jump in every time people call for your aid. Assign reliable people who can address smaller issues, while you handle the big picture. Learn how to expend your own energy where it is needed more.

For example – making a pitch presentation for potential investors keeps getting put off because one person needs you to check a client email they want to send, another wants your signature on a form, and the third wants to ask something about employee feedback that’s coming up.

In order to not be stretched thin, and have your time wasted on menial tasks, here’s where you can start:

How to mitigate the risk of being over-involved when assigning

• Remember that you match tasks to people

Which means that, by matching the right people with the right tasks, your involvement will be minimal. Take time to carefully choose who gets to do what. What is the point of assigning tasks if they can’t be done without you?

• Have a 10-point scale to judge the importance of items

How important are certain aspects of your leadership role? Are you absolutely necessary in every meeting, or during every call? Which tasks need your approval, and which ones can be approved by someone under you?

Rank these items on a scale of 0 to 10, based on their importance to you and the project. Top priority tasks should get your undivided attention. And what can be delegated, should be.

• Analyze your schedule

Your energy and time are needed on a much broader scale. The best way to spot if you’re wasting time being too involved is to look at your schedule. Identify how much time you’ve spent on low-priority items, and assess which issues could’ve been solved without you.

• Take into account priorities and deadlines

Step in only when absolutely necessary. You are in charge of things getting done on time, by people most qualified for assigned tasks. Determine what your priorities are for each project, and concern yourself only with those issues, unless there is a risk of breaching a deadline.

• Formulate a list of dependable people

If you know your employees (or team members) well enough, then you should be able to single out those who are more dependable and ready to take on a little more responsibilities. Write out the reasons how they could help by getting involved on low-priority items instead of you. When the time comes, rally them and present them with the idea, keeping in mind that this solution helps push the project forward. When authority is delegated to several people, there’s fewer chances of a hold-up in the workflow.

This also falls into the realm of task delegation , which we’ll get into later.

How do you decide what tasks to assign to which employees?

1. assign based on priority.

Naturally, some tasks will be more important than others. When you break down a project into tasks , spend some time assessing their priority level.

High-priority tasks should be the first on your list to allocate. Whether it’s because they’re time-sensitive, or require more effort and dedication.

Low priority tasks can be allocated as fillers to the first available person.

2. Assign based on employee availability

Another factor to consider when assigning tasks is who is available at the moment.

As the project moves along, new tasks will be added. You will have to allocate new work, but odds are you won’t always be able to pick who you want. Especially if a deadline is approaching, the person with the smallest workload should be your first choice.

Overloading an already busy individual just because they’re more skilled or you have faith in them the most puts an unnecessary strain on them. It’s cause for frustration, poorer results, and decreased productivity.

And as we’ve mentioned, if you have a timesheet with an overview of all the tasks and employees working on them, it’ll be much easier to spot who is free and who isn’t.

3. Assign based on employee skill level

High-priority tasks should go to employees with more experience in a given field or skill. However, you should occasionally give such tasks to other employees as well, to help them grow and become just as dependable. Giving people challenging tasks that can boost their experience is essential to productivity and morale.

Not to mention you get to have multiple high-skilled employees.

Low-priority tasks can be assigned to anyone, despite their experience level. They’re a good opportunity to practice, pick up new skills, or get smaller tasks out of the way to make room for more important ones.

4. Assign based on preference

Last, but not the least, preference can also play a big part in how you assign tasks.

It’s a given that some employees will prefer certain tasks over others. So it could be good to assign tasks at a meeting with the team. As you discuss priorities, deadlines, and availability, ask them which tasks they would like to work on.

If someone shows interest in a specific type of work, they should (with some consideration), be allowed to take it. After all, people are more productive when they’re assigned to something they find new or exciting.

Note: Apply this rule with caution. Letting people do only the tasks they want can stunt their career growth. Getting out of our comfort zones and occasionally doing tasks that we don’t like is how we develop and learn. So, don’t forget to document assignments as you hand them out, to spot these potential issues early on.

Allocating vs delegating tasks

While semantically similar words, delegation and allocation in terms of tasks are two different things.

When you allocate tasks , you are assigning tasks without giving the employees much authority, challenge, or room to grow. It includes you keeping all of the responsibility – writing out the tasks, making deadlines, providing resources, tools, etc. These are usually recurring tasks that can become repetitive.

When you delegate tasks , you allow for some of that responsibility to fizzle out from your fingers. All you think about are the objectives, while letting the employees figure out the details and means to get there.

However, that doesn’t mean delegation is right and the allocation is wrong.

Task allocation has its own place. It is just as important, as a lot of tasks come down to repeated processes that are still vital to the project progress. Task delegation is just a good opportunity for employees to learn, challenge themselves, and assess their skills and performance.

When should you allocate tasks?

Management and BizDev consultant Artem Albul shared his concept on task assignment, which he dubbed an “algorithm”. He emphasized how these criteria are useful only and only when you wish that employees perform the tasks based on your guidelines and instructions (aka allocation).

Here is how Albul broke down the algorithm:

Source: Artem Albul, TWA Consulting

As we can see, task allocation, while the more “controlling” of the two, also gives in-depth instructions and asks for confirmation on task clarity. A lot of it comes down to everyone being on the same page, leaving little to no room for misinterpretation (but also creative freedom).

How should you allocate tasks?

With all that we’ve mentioned in the previous section, here’s how your task allotment could look like, step by step.

• Break down your project

Detail out the goals, objectives, and some individual tasks (not all, be careful not to start micromanaging). Place the most important deadlines.

• Prioritize tasks and sort them

It’s important to know what tasks need to be done faster/better, to properly allocate your resources and manpower from the start.

• Make a list of teams and team members

Assign team leaders (if you don’t have them), and alternatively, ask for their input on individual employees skills, for a more informed decision on who gets what.

• Schedule a meeting

Make a meeting with the team leads and go through the points above. Assign tasks according to each team’s availability, interest, and skill required to successfully push the project forward.

• As team leads – assign tasks further down the pipeline
• Track task completion and make necessary changes along the way

Whether it’s pushing deadlines, reassigning tasks, or shifting around resources. This is perfectly fine and expected, so long as it doesn’t happen on every task you’ve assigned. Then, it is an indicator of poor pre-planning.

• Offer feedback and write performances

Don’t forget to track the progress and make notes of important details that might help the next task allocation/delegation process. It’s also a useful piece of information for the employees on what they need to improve on.

Allocating tasks is somewhat more complicated than we want it to be. But, this kind of thorough research and preparation will make projects run more smoothly. Employees will also be more satisfied with their work, and there will be less hurdles as deadlines approach.

When should you delegate tasks?

Delegation is a great practice in trust for both the employer/supervisor and the employee. The employer learns how to give away some of their control over the process, while the employee learns how to take more accountability for their work.

This lets you focus on big-picture aspects of your job, since you deal less with assignments that are low-priority for you. You save time and energy, while helping others move up in their careers.

How do you effectively delegate tasks as a leader?

As we’ve mentioned, delegating includes more employee independence. There are some additional components which make this type of task assignment more appealing than allocation, with great opportunities for growth.

Focus on delegating objectives instead of actual tasks

When you delegate, you focus on the objective that needs to be done. You shouldn’t give employees a “color by numbers” instruction on how to complete a task.

Communicate clearly what the end result should be and what expectations you (or the higher-ups) have. Leave the means for reaching that end goal to the employees themselves. Because how you solve a task may be completely different to how they will. And that is perfectly fine, so long as the result is the one you are looking for.

Keep the objectives challenging

When the objectives you’re delegating are too easy, chances are the person will either procrastinate, or feel like you don’t trust them enough. And if they’re too difficult, they get frustrated, anxious, and begin to panic.

It’s a good idea to be aware of an employee’s skill level, so you can gauge how much challenge and responsibility they can take on. For them to be the most productive and achieve great results, they need to enter “the state of Flow”.

Source: Optimal Experience , M. Csikszentmihalyi

💡 We’ve discussed the state of Flow in more detail in an article on time organization.

Encourage discussion and feedback

Let employees voice their opinions on the topic.

They should ask anything about the task, the goals, or the overall impact their work will have on the later stages or others’ workflow. It means they are interested in the task, and getting involved.

And if they aren’t asking questions themselves, you can always nudge them into proactivity.

• Is there something you’d like me to clarify?
• Do you already have any ideas on how to go about the task?
• Is the time we agreed upon enough for you?
• Will you need other resources, tools, or support?
• Do you see any problems or risks?

Questions like these help them feel valued, their efforts acknowledged, and let them know you care about the task and how well they perform. Just be careful not to overdo it, or you’ll start to look like a micromanager.

Give employees free rein, but offer support

Speaking of micromanaging, delegation means you let people problem-solve their way out on their own. There should be no reason for a manager to step in and control or supervise any step of the process, unless absolutely necessary.

However, what you should do is let them know you’re available for any advice should they feel stuck. Just because employees get authority on a certain task, and are left to their own devices, doesn’t mean the project has to suffer until they pull themselves up.

From time to time, ask them if they need anything from you, and make sure they know you’re there for any kind of support, consultation, or mediation. ANother good practice is to also give them additional learning opportunities – such as training, conferences, courses, etc.

Delegate objectives that move people forward

Choose assignments that boost the skills and employ all of their experiences, instead of something that simply needs to be done. For example:

• Tasks that require they brush up on their team communication skills;
• Learning how to allocate smaller tasks;
• Supervising others’ work and doing quality control;
• Learning to work with a new tool;
• Holding a meeting (or more), etc.

Find out which skills your employees may want or need to develop, and then plan your delegations accordingly. You want them to complete the task while having learned something new at the same time.

How to choose who to delegate to

Paul Beesley, senior director and consultant at Beyond Theory proposed a nifty checklist for when you’re choosing an employee to delegate to. It’s meant to simplify and speed up the process.

To successfully complete the delegated task, your chosen employee needs:

S – the skill to perform and complete a task

T – the time to complete the task, and if needed, learn the required skill

A – the authority to handle everything concerning the task

R – the necessary level of responsibility

R – the recognition for successfully completing the task

This list is a set of important criteria that should be covered when you consider who to assign to a specific task. However, depending on your niche, type of service, company size and the project at hand, the criteria are likely to change. And it should accommodate your needs, not the other way around.

Common task delegation mistakes to avoid

With all being said, there are some common mistakes managers and employers make, sometimes without even realizing it.

• Being too vague concerning deadlines (using: as soon as possible, when you get to it, I need it by yesterday). It creates unnecessary pressure.
• Being unavailable for questions and concerns. While you shouldn’t micromanage, you should still be present for support if an employee feels stuck. Ignoring them or handing them over to someone else could cause distrust. However, if you are usually swamped with work, set consultation hours each day or week.
• Having unclear directions. Specifying the allotted time for task completion and expectations should be the bare minimum when delegating tasks.
• Not providing feedback. No feedback is worse than bad feedback. Employees need to be aware when they’re doing good work, as well. In one company I worked for, the mantra was: “If no one is complaining about your work, that means you’re doing good”. And while it sounds like sound logic, it actually caused a lot of frustration. We were left directionless, and simply “floating” from task to task, never knowing if any of them had a positive impact on our performance.
• Not listening to employees. Take into account how they feel about a task or the objective. Let them give you feedback and if there are potential problems from the get-go.
• Assigning other people to the same task. If you notice a person struggling, the first instinct should be to ask them how they’re faring, and if they need any help. Some managers tend to assign other employees to help them without consultation, which leaves a sore taste. The employee will feel even more incompetent and will be less likely to take on a similar task in the future.
• Assuming people will know what you mean. This is one of the biggest problems. When you’re formulating a task, be as clear as possible about the goals and expectations. Oftentimes managers think that these things are implied, but the truth is – no one is a mind reader. To avoid having information misconstrued or misunderstood, communicate clearly and directly.

There could be more mistakes, especially for every different field and industry. If at all possible, identify the most common ones, made either by you or your peers. Note down all the instances where certain tasks weren’t up to par, and see what you could have changed in your assignment process to fix it. Maybe there wasn’t enough time or resources, you were unclear, or the employee wasn’t ready for such responsibility. Use the same procedure in all future task delegations. It’s the only way to learn and make the process quicker.

To conclude

Task assignment should be a very careful, thought-out process. It’s not just about reaching milestones in time. It’s about helping employees learn new skills, feel more satisfied with their position in the company, strengthen the trust between you and them, and ultimately help you refocus on the big picture.

By following the advice we’ve gathered, you will be on the right track to make some effective, healthy long-term changes to your company.

✉️ Have you found these tips helpful? Is there something we could have covered in more detail? What are your experiences with assigning tasks?

Send your answers, suggestions, and comments to [email protected] and we may include them in this or future posts.

Marijana Stojanovic is a writer and researcher who specializes in the topics of productivity and time management.

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How Temporary Assignments Boost Innovation

When front-line manufacturing employees are exchanged between company sites, they contribute more valuable ideas.

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Image courtesy of Joyce Hesselberth/theispot.com

Just as digitalization and automation are transforming the shop floor, they are changing the role of front-line manufacturing employees. Workers increasingly create value not only by performing their core duties but by contributing to broader organizational objectives such as competitiveness and innovation as well. Those with creativity and aptitude for problem-solving have proved particularly valuable: Their front-line perspectives often generate promising process improvements and business opportunities that would not have been apparent to managers. As a result, front-line innovation has become one of the largest sources of sustained competitive advantage in manufacturing industries. At leading companies, up to 75% of annual productivity gains can be traced back to bottom-up ideas from non-R&D employees. 1

While front-line innovation is common, the ways in which managers can most effectively support it are not well understood. In our research, we have shown for the first time how strategic front-line mobility — the short, focused, and purposeful exchange of staff members between different company sites — can substantially boost these employees’ contributions to innovation and organizational learning in manufacturing companies.

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We engaged in a large-scale study of a multinational, multibillion-euro car parts manufacturer. We collected data on front-line ideas and their economic impact over four years and examined their relationship with individual worker mobility. To arrive at robust managerial insights on the causal effects of worker mobility, we analyzed more than 21,000 ideas submitted by almost 2,500 workers, using advanced econometric methods. 2 Key to our analytical approach was matching mobile front-line employees to similar colleagues who did not travel to other plants, which allowed us to precisely estimate the contributions originating from mobility.

Knowledge Transfer and Employee Learning

Our analyses reveal two distinct pathways through which front-line mobility fosters manufacturing innovation.

First, front-line mobility promotes knowledge sharing between factories. By virtue of their experience, shop floor employees frequently possess a wealth of tacit production knowledge at a level of detail that far exceeds what is covered in manuals or is known to engineers. For instance, it is usually the workers on the ground who learn firsthand how to iron out well-intentioned but occasionally impractical processes and product designs. When employees are strategically deployed to different sites, they carry this knowledge with them and help circulate it within the company.

One factory, for instance, may have built up extensive experience with a specific production method, and by temporarily assigning some of its employees to other factories, managers can see to it that this knowledge is shared. Likewise, upon their return, employees can bring home improvements spotted at or inspired by the processes at the plants they visited. The impact of such knowledge transfer is significant: In our research, the average move created manufacturing improvements worth more than 100,000 euros (roughly $121,000) within one month. While some researchers and managers still doubt the value of front-line employees’ tacit production knowledge, our findings indicate that this attitude can starve a company of one of its most valuable resources for innovation.

Second, front-line mobility makes workers themselves better innovators because it stimulates their learning. When they visit other factories, they are exposed to different, but often related, manufacturing setups — for instance, a plant that produces the same product as their home factory but for a different market and with slightly different machinery. As workers observe how different setups of similar manufacturing processes are linked to various performance outcomes, they acquire a more fundamental understanding of how these processes work. This gives rise to what we call know-why (as opposed to know-how ), which is an understanding of why things work rather than how .

To illustrate, consider injection molding (a key operation at the company we studied). The minimum heating time of thermoplastic material for a specific mold — for example, five minutes — is know-how. However, understanding why that time threshold has to change when the mold design becomes more complex or delicate is know-why. Once acquired, this type of knowledge significantly improves employees’ ability to come up with innovations, because they better understand how the different pieces of the manufacturing process fit together and therefore how they can be enhanced. Thus, rather than creating immediate cost savings like knowledge transfer does, know-why makes workers themselves better innovators. In our study, employees’ ideas increased in value by 20,000 euros ($24,000) per month after a move, and this increase lasted for several years. Beyond the issue of front-line mobility, the result adds a new dimension to human resource management: Not only can front-line employees learn to become better at their (primary) jobs, but they can also learn to become better innovators.

How to Implement Front-Line Mobility

How can businesses implement strategic front-line mobility? Three key considerations emerged from our research.

First and foremost, for front-line mobility to promote innovation, it needs to be purposeful and problem-driven. That means employees should not be sent to other plants to passively observe operations or receive training, or as a reward. Instead, moves should be tied to a specific and operationally relevant task. In our study, employees were regularly sent to other factories to support local problem-solving, such as when the production process was facing quality issues. These visits were short (up to two weeks), but they intensely engaged visiting employees in the local factory’s operations. In doing so, employees became deeply embedded in the context of the visited plant and interacted repeatedly with its staff, processes, and machinery. This hands-on approach to front-line mobility is instrumental to knowledge transfer and learning. Only when visitors work jointly with colleagues and truly immerse themselves in the visited plant does it create the right environment for the serendipitous sharing of ideas and best practices that drives innovation.

Second, front-line mobility works best between plants that share similar processes and machinery and make similar products. If processes, machinery, and products differ too much between two plants, the gap between their existing knowledge stocks becomes too large for any meaningful knowledge transfer and learning to take place. At some point, if two plants are too different, knowledge from one plant may simply not apply to the other.

Many companies’ practices fall into exactly this kind of trap. One particularly common scenario involves sending employees from peripheral plants (such as foreign or geographically distant plants) to central plants (frequently colocated with corporate headquarters) to learn how things are done “the right way.” This does not help promote bottom-up innovation: Because central plants often lead the way with new processes and technologies, knowledge gained by visiting peripheral employees often cannot be readily applied back at their home plants, where those novelties have not yet been adopted. Likewise, employees from more advanced central plants may find little to learn from the particular circumstances and constraints under which peripheral plants operate. Thus, for front-line innovation, turning to related units in similar contexts is better than visiting technologically advanced but unrelated ones.

Third, while the benefits of front-line mobility are substantial, it is best to limit how many employees participate. At the car parts manufacturer we studied, about 3% of the workforce visited another plant each year. Involving more employees than that in exchanges may increase costs, such as those incurred from covering staff members’ absences at their home factories. In addition, while there was no limit to employee learning, knowledge transfer abated after about 10 exchanges per factory pair and year.

A Case for Strategic Front-Line Mobility

Related articles.

Front-line employees are uniquely experienced and positioned to innovate products and processes. Companies that adopt a front-line innovation mindset — one that stimulates, objectively evaluates, and swiftly implements front-line ideas — can therefore make significant strides. Our research shows that companies should complement such a mindset with a strategic approach to front-line mobility, which boosts employee-driven innovation by facilitating internal knowledge sharing and stimulating employee learning.

Since COVID-19 has put a halt on business travel over the past year, many companies have started questioning whether the time, money, and carbon emissions associated with travel are necessary, or whether the collaboration enabled by digital tools is a sufficient substitute. While we did not evaluate the degree to which virtual collaboration fosters front-line innovation, our study provides strong evidence that what drives innovation is exactly the kind of serendipity and free-flowing exchange of ideas that only emerges in the physical presence of fellow workers. As a result, we believe that a purposeful, directed, and strategic mobility program will be best suited to support employee-driven manufacturing innovation over the long term.

About the Authors

Philipp B. Cornelius is assistant professor of technology and operations management at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. Bilal Gokpinar is professor of operations, technology, and innovation at the UCL School of Management at University College London. Fabian J. Sting ( @fast1005 ) is the chair of the Department of Supply Chain Management — Strategy and Innovation at the University of Cologne, as well as chaired professor of digital supply chain innovation at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.

1. F.J. Sting and C.H. Loch, “ Implementing Operations Strategy: How Vertical and Horizontal Coordination Interact ,” Production and Operations Management 25, no. 7 (December 2015): 1177-1193.

2. P.B. Cornelius, B. Gokpinar, and F.J. Sting, “ Sparking Manufacturing Innovation: How Temporary Interplant Assignments Increase Employee Idea Values ,” Management Science, published online, Aug. 20, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2020.3673.

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A project scheduling and staff assignment model considering learning effect

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• Published: 21 September 2005
• Volume 28 , pages 1190–1195, ( 2006 )

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• Muh-Cherng Wu 1 &
• Shih-Hsiung Sun 1  

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In a multi-project environment, we sometimes need to periodically schedule the tasks for each project and assign staff to the tasks. Such a decision-making problem has been studied in literature; however, learning effect of staff has not been considered in previous studies. This research formulates a mixed nonlinear program for project scheduling and staff allocation problems, which considers learning effect of staff. The objective function is to minimize outsourcing costs. A genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed to solve the problem. Experiments for solving various sizes of test problems has been carried out to validate the proposed GA.

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Wu, MC., Sun, SH. A project scheduling and staff assignment model considering learning effect. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 28 , 1190–1195 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-004-2465-0

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Received : 27 July 2004

Accepted : 25 October 2004

Published : 21 September 2005

Issue Date : May 2006

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-004-2465-0

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